YACHTING

YACHTING; San Diego Expected to Get Cup Series

By BARBARA LLOYD

Published: August 30, 1987

The San Diego Yacht Club is expected to announce this week where it plans to stage the next America's Cup series. Sources close to the negotiations predict that the site will be San Diego.

Three weeks ago, the club gave itself 90 days to make a decision. Since then, the seven-member committee in charge of selecting a venue has decided to give San Diego first consideration over about 10 other locations. The San Diego Yacht Club became guardian of the America's Cup after Dennis Conner won the trophy in the club's behalf last February in Australia.

Conner announced recently that he would like to see the next cup series held in San Diego, his hometown. The 44-year-old Conner has sailed there for nearly 30 years and was the youngest member of the San Diego Yacht Club when he joined as a teen-ager.

''We're trying to move this thing along and get everyone facing forward in the bus,'' said Gerald Driscoll, chairman of the club's site committee, about previous infighting. ''I'm still wiping tears and noses as we try to patch things up. For a while there, we were stuck in the mud.''

Members of the yacht club had argued with Sail America, Conner's 1986-87 America's Cup syndicate, over the makeup of a committee for choosing a venue. An arbitrator resolved the impasse last month by ordering that a new committee be formed.

The cities interested in the next cup series refer to history in staking a claim. They note that the New York Yacht Club used Newport, R.I., as a race site when it held the America's Cup. Among the top contenders are Honolulu, which says it has ideal sailing conditions and broad financial support, and Newport, which touts its longstanding ties with the America's Cup.

''We are taking a good, hard look at San Diego,'' said Driscoll, a former America's Cup helmsman. ''We said we would try to treat those who expressed an interest in the cup as our friends. We're looking at San Diego first, but if something doesn't happen with that, we told the others we would give them plenty of time to put together a proposal.''

Driscoll said that his committee was concerned about others spending promotional money prematurely. The Hawaii Legislature already has approved a $300,000 appropriation for environmental studies.

California officials have assured the committee that the state would give at least as much support to an America's Cup series as it did to the Summer Olympics in 1984, Driscoll said. He has estimated that the event, planned for 1990 or 1991, could cost more than $65 million. A major share of the expense is expected to come from corporate donations and the San Diego Port Authority.

The San Diego Yacht Club recently rejected an idea proposed by Michael Fay, a New Zealand entrepreneur, to race for the America's Cup next year in boats that are 120 feet long, twice the size of 12-Meters. Fay said that he was considering court action to press the issue under the century-old Deed of Gift, which sets the ground rules for the yacht-racing series. Arthur Bugs Baer, a 54-year-old yachtsman who has raced on Long Island Sound for more than 20 years, wants to bring experienced ''seniors'' back into the thick of competition. Baer has persuaded the New York affiliate of The Corinthians, a Northeast yachting association, to organize the first Ancient Mariner's Race Sept. 19 on the sound. To compete, the skipper must be at least 60 years old, and crew members must be at least 50. They can sail in any boat they want as long as it is rated under the Performance Handicap Racing Fleet, a standard measurement rule. Anyone interested should write to The Corinthians, Box 3224, Grand Central Station, New York, N.Y. 10017. More than 100 sailboats ranging in size from 30 to 72 feet are expected to compete Friday in the start of the 53d annual Vineyard Race. The 238-mile overnight passage begins at Stamford, Conn., proceeds through Long Island Sound to the Buzzards Bay Light Tower, and back. The race is the last in a summer series to decide the winner of the 1987 Northern Ocean Racing Trophy.